On a Cold Christmas Eve
by SophiaOfSlytherin
Summary: In which the Marauders, Lily, and Severus save Christmas. LExJP and one-sided SSxLE, so basically Canon. It's 7th year in the story. R&R please


The cold winds blew dangerously, brushing tree branches into the castle windows with a light _pitter, pitter, pitter. _The temperature, perhaps ten degrees, was unforgiving of all who dared to exit the safety and warmth of the castle. The night itself was unusually dark. It looked as if the light itself was afraid of the other natural forced at work. It seemed nature had forgotten that it was a holiday. So was the weather on the night of Christmas Eve.

The Marauders were in their dorm, wrapping themselves tightly in blankets, playing a game of "Would You Rather?" and creating the most disgusting of questions. One question in particular that Sirius asked had even James demanding silence from his best friend. Suddenly, the friends heard a crash outside, as if something, or someone, had fallen from a great height.

"What was that?!" asked Peter, thoroughly terrified. It seemed Peter always jumped to the worst possible conclusion at the first sign of trouble. After his fearful explosion, Peter was ashamed and wondered why he'd been sorted to Gryffindor in the first place.

"Let's go find out!" said Sirius cheerfully, as if the trouble could only entertain him more. Remus shot him a disapproving glare. "Oh pleaaaaaase, Moony, pleaaaaaase!" Sirius fell to his knees and slapped his hands together into a begging position at Remus's feet.

"Fine, but if it's bad, we're coming right back in," said Remus decisively as he began to search for his shoes, coat, and scarf. The other three commenced to take similar actions, except Sirius decided his coat "is hideous!" and chose to just wear a hooded sweater instead.

"Let's go, men!" loudly instructed James as the four made their exit of their dorm and Gryffindor Common Room. Remus shushed him immediately, telling him that if they didn't want to get caught, then he had better shut his mouth. In silence, the four trekked through the castle and got as far as the front gate.

"Stop right there!" demanded a voice from behind them, "Turn around!" When the four did as they were instructed, they found themselves facing Severus Snape, their enemy. Severus snickered to himself. "I've caught you now!"

"Great job, Snivelly," said James earnestly as he began to applaud. Sirius shot him a confused look, but one returned look from James told Sirius all he needed to know, and he too began to clap. As did Peter and Remus. "You've caught us all right. We're out of bed after hours. But, if I'm not mistaken, aren't you, as well?"

"Well, yes, and, well, I am, but-.." Severus sputtered in frustration before he muttered, "Damn it.." at which the Marauders, except Remus, all cracked into a side-splitting laughter. Severus, outraged, shouted, "I'll report you and get in trouble myself before I let you go where ever it is you're going!"

The Marauders puzzled a moment on what to do. James held up just his pointer finger to say "one minute" as the four huddled up to conference. The whispered form of shouts could be heard across the room by Severus, who stood in confusion at what there was to debate. It was just go back to bed or get into trouble, not a hard decision. With a groan from Sirius, the meeting was over.

"Snape, what if we take you with us?" said Remus with a friendly grin that surprised even himself. "Instead of getting us, and yourself, in trouble, why not just accompany us? We heard a crash outside and were going to investigate." The calmness in Remus's voice was as surprising as the smile.

After half a minute of thought, Severus replied, "All right, Lupin, I'll go with you, but only if Black and Potter are civilized humans, or at least they will pretend." Sirius would most likely have lunged at Severus had Remus not stood in the front of him.

"It's a deal," Remus agreed, and he took Severus's hand and shook it for security in the promise. Severus smirked, pleased with himself that he had arranged a way to not get bothered by the two boys who made his life a living Hell. The five turned to the door once again to leave but another voice stopped them.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" said a feminine voice, "Turn around so I can see who I'm dealing with." The five did as instructed, and Lily Evans stood as the body to the voice. "Potter and his gang… and Sev- _Snape_? And you aren't killing each other? It's a Christmas miracle! Too bad you had to do it in the _middle of the night_."

"Hey, Lilyflower!" said Sirius, feeling smart, "You're out of bed after hours, too! So you can't report us to Dumbledore or you'll get in trouble too! No one's ashamed or shocked anymore when we're in trouble, but what about perfect Lily Evans?"

"Sirius Black you complete idiot!" Lily said with a laugh, "I'm a _prefect_! I'm doing my _job_ being out of bed! It's my _patrol_!" Sirius muttered something unflattering under his breath. James slapped his friend across the back of the head for saying such things about Lily.

"Evans, want to come with us?" said James smoothly, running his hand through his messy black hair. "We heard this crash outside, so we're going to see what it was. Someone could be dying." He somehow managed to make his way all the way over to Lily and hook his arm in hers.

"Hmm…" said Lily, truly pondering the idea, "Well, if we're going to make sure everything is all right.. I guess so." James jumped into the air with joy with an exclamation of "Yes!" And so the six exited with no further interruptions. They decided to split up to find the location of the crash quicker.

"I found something!" called Remus from near the edge of the forest, "You'll never believe what it is!" The other five rushed over to find Remus gaping at a red sleigh with major damage. "It looks like it fell out of the sky! But of course that's impossible.. Even in the world of magic, sleighs don't just fall from the sky.."

"Look at the harnesses at the front!" Lily exclaimed, "It looks like.." - she began to chuckle at the mere thought - "It looks like Santa Claus's sleigh!"

"You still believe in Santa Claus?" Sirius said as he raised an eyebrow, "What kid stuff!" He continued to laugh as a figure began to walk nearer and nearer to him, but, as it was directly behind him, he was the only one who could not see it.

"So, you're too old for Santa Claus?" asked the dark figure. Sirius spun around on his heels to come face-to-face with the darkened, unrecognizable man. All he could tell was that the man was large. "It's 'kids stuff,' is it?" Sirius, using his head for once, lifted his lit wand up to the man so he could see. In shock of who this man was, the wand promptly fell from his hand and into the cold snow that coated the ground.

"G-guys.." said Sirius, turning back to his friends, "This doesn't _look _like Santa's sleigh.. This _is_ Santa's sleigh!" He grabbed his wand off of the ground and once again lit up the man's face. "M-meet Santa Claus." The man smiled and laughed: "Ho ho ho!"

"Ho ho holy crap, it _is_ Santa!" James exclaimed, falling back just a little in shock. Lily giggled quietly, and when James looked up at her, she turned away quickly. Severus noticed she was blushing. He scowled at James with anger.

"So he _is_ real," whispered Remus in amazement, pure awe shining through his eyes. And, of course, it was no surprise that Remus didn't believe. Practical Remus could never figure how one man could deliver presents to every person on Earth in one night. Even if he was a wizard and apparated, (and he had done the math,) there wasn't enough time to place things in each and every house. Remus stopped believing a long time ago.

"Yes, I am real, Remus," said Santa, "I'm sorry I cannot possibly give you want you really want for Christmas." Remus lowered his head. Even during years of disbelief, he had always hoped for a cure to his lycanthropy. It was all he wanted.

"Why did your sleigh crash, Santa?" said Peter eagerly. He, on the other hand, had kept believing all his life. James and Sirius had picked on him for it sometimes, saying seventeen-year-old boys shouldn't believe in Santa Claus, but he still did.

"I'm not quite sure, Peter," Santa replied, shaking his head. "The reindeer just quit pulling, and we fell out of the sky. And now they've wandered off, and I haven't a clue to where they are." He spoke with an accent, strange to the young British citizens. Santa, as it turned out, was American.

"How many deer are we looking for?" asked Sirius stupidly. When he received numerous glares, he added, "..What? I haven't counted!" James shook his head at the stupidity of his friend.

"Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Commit, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen," said Remus, counting on his fingers as he spoke, "And is Rudolph real, too?' When Santa nodded, and Remus added, "And Rudolph. So that's nine."

"We're supposed to find nine reindeer?" asked Severus hopelessly, "They could be anywhere on the grounds, and it's pitch black. We'll never find them."

"We have wands, you twit," said James, "We'll just use _lumos_ to find them! As for the grounds situation, there's seven of us, so we can just split up. Maybe in partners?" He wiggled his eyebrows at Lily to suggest something.

"Partners is fine," said Lily calmly, not looking at James at all, "Peter will go with Mr. Claus, I suppose I'll go with James, and Remus is too smart to need a partner." She, of course, paired this way on purpose.

"So that leaves me with.." Sirius worked out, "..Snivelly! I have to go with _Snivelly_?! Can't we draw straws or something?!" Severus, equally disapproving, suggested Sirius partner with James and he go with Lily, but Lily ignored the comment entirely.

"Come on, Snivelly, don't whine about who's with who, just go!" said James with a large grin spreading across his face. "Me and Lily will go that way" - James pointed - "while you all go.. Somewhere else!" Without a further word, James, clutching Lily's arm, took off running. Lily followed, though not all by choice, laughing the entire way. Discussion took place to decide who would go what way, and then the five remaining broke into their squads.

Remus, it was decided, would go into the Forbidden Forest since it was the least dangerous for him. After all, he was "scarier than most of the things in here half of the time". With his wand at the ready, he ventured through, examining each and every inch he past to look for the reindeer. Finally, he found two of the dear, Dasher and Vixen, about to be attacked by a creature with which he was not familiar. However, one spell sent the beast flying, and the deer were rescued.

Peter and Santa went to the shrieking shack. Peter used his animagius abilities to stop the tree before he and Santa entered, and once inside, they discovered Dancer and Prancer. The two deer were just standing there in the shack, wondering how it was that tree had tried to swat at them. The two quickly evacuated the deer before the tree had a chance to start swinging again.

Sirius and Severus fought the entire way. They were so loud that when they found Commit and Cupid, they nearly scared the deer off. Still yelling, the two drew their wands and faced each other, but the deer came through and caused them both to drop their wands into the snow. Wandless, the two had to chase after the deer and capture them by hand.

James and Lily were having a wonderful time. Lily was finally seeing the caring, sweet side of James, and she'd even allowed him to kiss her cheek until they found Donner and Blitzen. In a gentlemanly manner, James peacefully captured the deer without Lily even having to flex a pinky finger. Hand-in-hand, they walked back to the scene of the crash.

"Is this-.. all-.. of them?" Sirius asked between pants. Severus stood beside him, panting equally as hard. The both of them were desperately trying to catch their breath after the "refreshing jog" they had just had.

Remus counted the deer up, then said, "No, we're still missing one. Rudolph hasn't been found yet." Even as he spoke, they all began to search the area. All, that is, except for Severus.

"I see him," said Severus without moving a muscle. He lifted his arm and pointed to the top of the castle. "He's up there." Lily looked in the direction of Severus's pointing, but her expression was confused.

"I don't see him," said Lily, trying to position herself at an angle at which Rudolph was viewable. Severus delicately held her head and positioned it at the correct angle. "Oh, now I see the red glow of his nose!" She giggled a little bit, then turned around. "Thank you, Snape." Then she ran over to James and pointed up to Rudolph. Severus felt his heart break once again.

"Rudolph! Come down here!" called Santa. The deer did so, but when it landed, a snap was heard, and to the ground it fell. Santa examined it and declared the deer's ankle broken. "And wizard magic doesn't work on my deer. I use magic all the time of them, so they've had to become used to it, almost immune to it."

"What do we do?!" said Peter in a panic, "There's only a few more hours of night and Rudolph's ankle is broken!" He began to run in a small circle screaming until Sirius caught the top of his head to stop him. "Thanks."

Suddenly, Remus had a brilliant idea. "What if James fills in for Rudolph?" Santa laughed, saying it was impossible for a human to fill in for a deer, but Remus protested. "Show him, James!" With the tap of a wand, James transformed into his stag form. He was a strong deer, perfect for the lead spot on Santa's sleigh. Sirius summoned a red light and taped it to James's nose.

"This is amazing!" Santa cheered with his powerful, jolly voice, "Christmas is saved! You six teenagers have saved Christmas! Well, we've got to be going!" He put all of his deer into their harnesses and James into Rudolph's. Lily whispered something into Santa's ear, at which Santa nodded before "Ho, ho, ho!" rang out clear and loud. The sleigh began to take off.

"On, Dasher! On, Dancer! On, Prancer! On, Vixen!" shouted Santa, "On, Comment! On, Cupid! On, Donner! On, Blitzen! And on, Prongs!" With just a little bit of arrogance, James the stag through his head around and began to pull the sleigh.

The next morning, James woke up in his bed, the top bunk above Remus. Sirius was still asleep on the bunk next to him, above Peter. Down below, Remus and Peter were just waking up. He threw a pillow across at Sirius, who then woke up as well. James found a note pinned to the end of his bed addressed to "Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs."

"It's a letter!" said James, and he began to read it: " 'Dear boys: Thank you for your assistance. Without you, Christmas would surely have been a disaster. Sirius, for your help, you are off of the naughty list." - Sirius pulled his arm down in a motion signifying his excitement. - "Remus, though I cannot fix your problem, I have left you a years worth of Wolfsbane potion. Peter, I've left you exactly what you asked for. Keep believing! James, I didn't leave you anything, but if you go downstairs to the Gryffindor Common Room and stand near the portrait hole with a blindfold on at nine o'clock this morning, you will receive your Christmas miracle. Warm regards, Santa Claus."

Instantly, James glanced at the clock, which told him he had two seconds to go to the portrait hole. He threw down the letter and, still in his nightclothes, ran down the stairs. He was where was instructed to be within thirty seconds. A blindfold sat on the table next to him, and he snatched him up and tied it on. For about a minute he stood there awkwardly until his miracle came.

When he heard footsteps, he didn't know what to expect. When the person kept getting nearer and nearer to him, he began to grow nervous. When the person pressed their lips to his, he felt nothing but pure joy and happiness. The person removed his blindfold, and Lily Evans stood before him. She pointed up, and James looked to see she was pointing at mistletoe. Without any coaxing, she leaned it once more and kissed him again. It was a Christmas he would never forget.

**A/N: Merry Christmas everybody! If you don't celebrate Christmas, then Happy Holidays! All I want for Christmas are reviewwwwwsssss.**


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